Petroleum engineering

The United States’ dependency for foreign oil is at its all-time high with the demand for oil continuing to grow. Americans depend on oil for transportation, heating, and power. Within the last five to ten years, the growing desire for more efficient ways of fueling has skyrocketed. Petroleum engineering has sparked a revolution throughout the nation. It has made a strong influence on the whole nation but has really made an impact in places like Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Texas which are high drilling states.

However, the controversy of natural gas drilling, the job of petroleum engineers, has become a highly talked about issue. The population that is against it does not know the vast amount of good that comes from drilling. Those people do not understand the amount of foreign dependency the United States relies on in order to keep the consumers satisfied.

They also do not understand that the reason for the inflation on gas prices is because we are not utilizing the gas we have in our country. The impact of natural gas drilling could potentially provide the energy we need. The rising impact Petroleum Engineering has had on our country and globally has been cause by the vast need for oil, the global desire for more efficient ways of fueling, and the need for advancements in technology.

Today’s society is in need of more oil than any time prior to the present day. The first reason why the need for oil has risen is because most of today’s vehicles run on gasoline, which comes from oil. Transportation is a huge industry in our nation today. The nation desires more and more efficient ways of getting from place to place but also doing so in the least costly ways. Petroleum engineering has provided the better alternative to oil. The University of Texas had this to say about the alternative, “Petroleum now provides 70% of the world’s energy and is likely to do so for at least another 50, and probably 100, years. In a sense, no other branch of engineering is more concerned with our everyday lives” (Petroleum Engineering1).

This resource would be a cheap and efficient alternative to oil. Many people are uninformed on how important this would be to the country. The United States for many years has been dependent on foreign resources. The majority of our oil comes from Saudi Arabia, and other middle eastern nations. The less we are dependent on foreign oils, the less we have to worry about the vast desire for it. If we were able to use natural gas as an everyday source of energy, we would not only save money but we would be saving the environment.

“[Natural Gas] is colorless, shapeless, and odorless in its pure form… and when burned it gives off a great deal of energy and few emissions” (http://www.naturalgas.org/overview/background.asp). The amount of pollution we would be eliminating if we used natural gas would be drastic. Natural gas comes straight from the ground which makes it a pure gas. The significance of natural gas being a pure gas is that it does not have chemicals added to it. When this is used as energy it does not produce any excess smoke or hazardous chemicals.

For so many years, the United States has pushed for more ways of protecting our planet. However, one issue that still continues to arise is the issue of pollution. The harmful gases that power plants, homes, and cars give off can potentially be deadly. Natural Gas will not only cut down on the amount of pollution, it will almost completely eliminate it.

The final reason that natural gas will grow due to the high demand for it is the potential jobs. “President Obama said in his State of the Union address in January that natural gas drilling could create 600,000 jobs nationally” (http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/04/natural_gas_drilling_creates_s.html) The reason that natural gas has become so popular is not all about the energy it provides; nor is it the amount of pollution it will save. This new technology has become a great thing for so many people.

Millions of people are now getting on-site and off-site job opportunities. As this industry continues to grow, which it will, even more jobs will become available. These job opportunities will give a chance for people to live the so-called “American Dream”.

These jobs offer twice the average American salary with benefits. The great thing about these jobs is that they do not demand a four-year college degree. There are programs now designed both online and in school that can have you prepared for drilling in less than two years.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics “projected an employment opportunity increase for petroleum engineers of 18% between 2008 and 2018. Career openings span the globe with some of the highest salaries offered to entry-level engineers with bachelor's degrees.”

(http://education-portal.com/articles/Petroleum_Engineering_Training_and_Degree_Program_Information.html). Natural gas drilling has provided futures for so many people in our nation, but natural gas also has an impact on the rest of the world as well.

In today’s society, energy is critical. Everything we do involves a form of energy being used such as gas, electric, or water. United States ranks the highest in energy used in terms of total usage. The U.S Energy Information Administration estimated that the, “the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 11,496 kWh” (http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=97&t=3). I, for example, never took into consideration the amount of our income that goes into energy.

Many people struggle to provide the necessary energy they need. Our population is always asking for more efficient ways of providing what we need. With the economy where it is at today, more and more people are turning to cheaper alternatives to what they are using.

Petroleum has become a vital source for energy within the last ten years for the world. It has become the alternative that people are searching for. The reason it is cheaper is because we are not getting it from other countries, we are finding it our own country. The less we have to pay other countries for the energy means the less we have to pay for that energy.

Businesses such as Range Resources, Shell, and Marcellus Shale are booming in business. Natural gas is the world's fastest-growing fossil fuel, with consumption increasing at an average rate of 1.6 percent per year from 2008 to 2035” (http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/ieo/nat_gas.cfm). In areas of Pennsylvania and West Virginia it is the biggest business around. It has provided thousands of job opportunities for people across this area. As we continue to need more energy, the corporations are finding ways to provide more of this energy.

Jane Van Ryan, the senior manager of communications for API, had this to say about the industry, “Today’s energy companies are investing in the fuels of future. Between 2000 and 2008, the industry invested more than $58 billion in carbon mitigation technologies and similar projects, more than either the federal government or other private industries combined” (http://newenergyandfuel.com/http:/newenergyandfuel/com/2010/02/26/the-economic-impact-of-the-oil-and-natural-gas-industry/).

This industry is only going to get bigger as time continues. However this new business has not only affected this area, it has affected the rest of the world as well. “There are great work opportunities within the traditional as well as the future oil industry. Possible work places include Norwegian and international oil companies, consultancy firms and service providers” (http://www.ntnu.edu/studies/msg1/job).

The final reason why petroleum engineering has impacted the globe is economically. When the recession hit in 2008, it was not hard to see that our country was struggling. The recession did not mean that the price for energy would get any lower, but the price at which we could purchase that energy did go down. As our economy began to fight back from the recession, the petroleum field started to largely grow. With that growth, the field for petroleum boomed to what it is now. “The nation’s energy represents more than $1 trillion of U.S. economic activity, accounting for about 7.5 percent of U.S. GDP, helping to make the U.S. economy the biggest in the world.

Oil and natural gas also support about 9.2 million American jobs. Between 2004 and 2007, the industry also created more than two million additional American jobs” (http://newenergyandfuel.com/http:/newenergyandfuel/com/2010/02/26/the-economic-impact-of-the-oil-and-natural-gas-industry/). It is no surprise that the natural gas industry has continued to grow. The demand for natural gas is it at its highest ever recorded.

Many individuals have deemed this century as the century of technology. These inventions and discoveries have improved the lifestyles of millions of Americans. As people may believe that new technology such as the iPhone or 3D filming is the most important, there is a major advancement that goes unnoticed. The advancements we have made in energy production and consumption is the most important.

Our technology today is without a question of the highest standard. The creation of these items has provided our world with more efficient ways of completing things we do every day. Like I said before, the technology that has most critically affected our lives would be the advancements in energy. One of the newest advancements in energy is when it comes to transportation. We have seen in the last several years the advancement in electric cars.

However, advancement similar to the electric car would be the natural gas car. While many acknowledge the electric car for its limit of pollution as well as more affordability, many overlook the importance of the natural gas car. The Honda Civic GX is one of the newest natural gas cars on the market. This car won the 2012 “Green Car of the Year” award for this new innovation. The car runs purely on natural gas. There are several perks to this means of fueling. The first is the lack of emissions it leaves behind. Unlike gasoline and diesel, natural gas is a clean gas.

The fact that it is a clean gas is that when it is burned, the harmful chemicals that exist in gasoline and diesel are not exhausted. Another perk of this is that it is cheap. It is estimated that the new Civic GX takes just around ten dollars to fill up. The price of gasoline is almost three times more expensive than that of the natural gas car. The final perk of the car would be that filling up the car takes the same amount of time it takes to fill up a gasoline powered car. Unlike its competitor the electric car, which takes close to six hours to fill up, it is more convenient for the average person. (http://www.boston.com/cars/newsandreviews/overdrive/2011/12/2012_honda_civic_natural_gas_review.html).

The advancement in natural gas transportation has sparked some interest in the matter, but the real interest is the benefits natural gas has compared to other alternatives. Natural gas is not the only alternative to gasoline; however, it is the best of those alternatives. The first other alternative would be wind power. The first reason it is not comparable to natural gas is that there is yet to be a source of transportation that uses wind power instead of gasoline. Another reason why natural gas is better than wind power is what HotAir had to say, “Wind turbines slice thousands of birds of prey in half every year, including white-tailed eagles in Norway, golden eagles in California, wedge-tailed eagles in Tasmania.